Mary Gauthier reveals her songwriting theories

“I have this theory about songwriting,” says Mary Gauthier, whose new album is titled “Trouble & Love,” because it’s mostly about trouble and love.

In truth Gauthier has a bunch of theories about songwriting. She’s been doing it professionally for 15 years, and she has found favor with an international audience and with recording artists as disparate as Bob Dylan, Blake Shelton, Jimmy Buffett and Boy George. She also teaches songwriting, offering hard-won lessons to students interested in investing emotion rather than reaping commercial reward.

“Good luck, it’s hard as (expletive),” she says about the process of vulnerable revelation that leads to works like “Trouble & Love.”

It is hard, but she has some theories. A sampling:

• “I think songs heal. They’re a form of spiritual medicine, and they create a connection between people. The connection does something that is needed by both the songwriter and the listener. It’s like when you cut yourself, all these mechanisms in your body race to the wound and begin healing it. There’s something about songwriting that does that same thing in a spiritual, emotional way.”

• “Songs do good in the world, and good songs do a lot of good in the world.”

• “What happens is you get to the truth. Not the journalistic truth of what happened on Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m., but the emotional truth.”

• “When you get there, it’s exciting. If you had a football, you’d spike it.”

• “This is a sacred art form. We’re getting to the thing that’s causing the pain, and healing it.”

• “Songwriting is innocent and pure. Everybody can be part of it. Little kids start making up songs when they’re 3 years old. There’s a myth that it has to be done by professionals, but it doesn’t.”

• “When the commercial music business is the only motivation, things go terribly wrong.”

• “The magic is in finding that sweet spot between art and craft. If you want to reach more people, there has to be a high level of craftsmanship. But if you want it to heal, you’ve got to have an equally high level of artistry.”

• “It’s deadly to take something sacred and turn it into something crass.”

• “Microscopic detail is the best way.”

• “Don’t give me a noun. I want an adjective.”

• “Too revelatory? Nah.”

• “John Prine’s ‘Sam Stone’ can make a 300-pound biker named Grizzly cry. That’s what I want. I want Grizzly to take off his chains and cry and hug somebody.”

• “I wrote more than 30 songs for the ‘Trouble & Love’ album. There are eight on the finished album. People don’t have time for filler.”

• “I had to write my way into perspective. Writing in real time about loss, that’s hard stuff. It’s like someone putting their hands over your eyes and asking what you see: kind of dark in there.”

• I can’t show people how to write, but I can show them where the bull’s- eye is on the dartboard, so they know what they’re aiming for.”